It is revealed that the transfer of seven senior DIGs with immediate effect has caused an eruption of an internal power struggle.
Kithsiri Jayalath, the Chief of Police of the North-Western Province and one of the main stakeholders in the campaign that Dr Safi led to the forced sterilization of thousands of Sinhalese mothers has been transferred from the Eastern Province to the North-Western Province. The Senior Deputy Inspector General of Southern Province Ajith Rohana has been transferred to the Eastern Province and has informed that he will not accept this illegal transfer.
There has also been a serious discussion regarding the non-inclusion of Senior DIG Deshbandu Tennakone, who has been named by the Attorney General as an accused in the Easter attack, in the transfer list. The Inspector General of Police has made the relevant transfers with the approval of the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security, and the approval of the Police Commission is to be obtained later.
As such, the emergency transfers given last night have come to the fore as an exposure of the power conflict within the police and the severe mishandling by the political authority.
